Wednesday's US inventory figures provided little fresh direction. Crude oil stocks eased further from recent six-year highs, but product supplies rose as refiners worked at near full-throttle to meet demand. The data were in line with expectations.

US light sweet crude CLc1 was up 30 cents at $58.39 a barrel in Asian trading, having slid 95 cents or 1.6 percent a day ago. On Tuesday, the front-month contract hit a high of $59.70 a barrel, a record since the exchange started trade in 1953.

US demand for distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, has risen 6.9 percent from a year ago while stockpiles are still below average, driving worries that refiners may be ill-prepared to meet peak winter demand for the fuels.

Oil prices have soared nearly 35 percent since the start of the year, averaging about $10 more than in 2004, as hefty crude production from OPEC does little to assuage concerns about the ability of refiners to produce enough oil products.

The extra OPEC oil helped boost US crude stocks to a six-year peak last month, although they have fallen for the past three weeks as refiners return from maintenance.

Gasoline inventories nudged 200,000 barrels higher last week to stand 4.5 percent higher than last year, adding to confidence that they will last the peak-demand summer driving season.

Distillate inventories rose 1.3 million barrels and are only 0.7 percent higher than this time in 2004.

Total US oil product demand over the last four weeks is up 1.7 percent from a year ago, with gasoline consumption rising 2.5 percent but distillates leading the pack.

Those gains have coincided with greater diesel consumption in Europe, where it is increasingly the motor fuel of choice, and in No. 2 energy consumer China, where many businesses use it to fire oil-powered generators during summer electricity shortages.

Gains have also been spurred by renewed worries about supplies from producer countries after a threat against Western consulates in OPEC member Nigeria and a potential workers' strike in No. 3 oil exporter Norway, which was averted at the last moment.